Money Talks at This Arena, and It Also Gets Good Seats

I read your article on the Staples Center [“Home Suite Home,” June 27]. It was built by millionaires to pay tens of thousands of dollars to watch other millionaires.

It’s ironic that half a block away, there is the Salvation Army with the sign, “Need Knows No Season.”

MATTHEW A. BERNSTEIN

Los Angeles

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I was appalled to read the articles describing the sheer luxury and expense that this new sports center is to be.

It is shocking to think in a multicultural, multiethnic society and melting pot that we have here in Los Angeles, that the city fathers approved a new facility that obviously panders to the rich and famous--the affluent and the opulent.

Reference is made to the splendor of Rome and the divisions of the classes. The proletariat was made to feel just like that--and the rich and titled were catered to.

If there was ever a monument to greed and lust and the riches of a few to rub the faces into the dirt of the rest of us, this is it!

ROBERT C. TULL

Pacific Palisades

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Prof. Robert Baade’s observation about class segregation in the historic Roman Colosseum is well taken. The difference between that and the Staples Center, however, is that the Colosseum has survived for over two millenniums; if current trends continue, the Staples Center will probably be torn down in about 40 years.

J.S. KLEINSASSER

Bakersfield